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Windows 8: The InfoWorld Deep Dive report

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Find out what Microsoft's forthcoming OS means for developers, admins, network security, mobile usage, and more in InfoWorld's comprehensive guide

It's not the Windows you know and love. Microsoft has revealed a "reimagined" Windows -- code-named Windows 8 -- that boasts a very different, tile-centric user interface called Metro taken from Windows Phone that is touch-savvy, runs on ARM processors as well as Intel x86 chips, takes fewer system resources so it can run on a wider variety of hardware platforms, and works on both tablets and traditional keyboard-and-mouse PCs. It's not mobile versus desktop, it's mobile and desktop together.

The new Windows -- available now in a pre-beta developers version and expected to be formally released in late 2012 -- reflects a changing world, says Microsoft's Windows chief Steven Sinofsky. "Things are a whole lot different now than three years ago. ... Touch is a whole new dimension. Mobility is a whole new dimension. ... We want Windows to respond to that."

InfoWorld's analysis of Windows 8, based on hands-on use of the developer version, is that it is a game-changer for users -- and will be a major shift for users and IT alike in terms of capability, usage, management, and overall technology strategy. And it will introduce huge changes to how developers conceive and deliver their applications.